High-Achieving Women: Stop Treating Yourself Like a Project - with Stacey Hutson

Perimenopause Is Your Second Puberty: Simple Habits That Help You and Your Daughters with Stacey Hutson You've stepped over the same laundry basket for nine days. Today, for no clear reason, it feels like nails on a chalkboard. The mess has been there for years. Your patience for it packed up and left somewhere around your 40th birthday. EPISODE SUMMARY That's the moment this conversation starts with. Amy Mewborn sits down with Stacey Hutson, host of The Next Phase podcast and mom of two girls. Stacey just turned 40, and she's learning in real time that the all or nothing wellness rules that carried her through her 20s and 30s have stopped working. Stacey grew up as the little girl with a stomach ache that never went away. In her early 20s she cut gluten, went paleo, and everything changed. The bloating calmed down. Her hair grew long for the first time in her life. So she went all in, started a food blog, and photographed every meal she ate. Then 40 showed up with sleep struggles and a changing midsection, and pushing harder only made things worse. You'll hear why clearing the clutter helped Stacey's nervous system more than her whole morning routine, how she feeds a family real food without becoming the food police, and the three things she changed at home after reading about girls starting puberty earlier. Amy shares her own stories too, including the closet full of polyester she's finally clearing out at 50, the summer she spent rebuilding her parents' pantry in Nashville, and the hotel room that left her covered in hives. The big idea you'll walk away with is this. Perimenopause is a second puberty. You're on one end of the hormone ride and your daughter is on the other, and the same simple habits help you both. KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED Why Extreme Wellness Stops Working at 40 Stacey's childhood stomach aches and a 90s diet built on spaghetti, sandwiches, and pizza How cutting gluten in her early 20s calmed her bloating and helped her hair and nails finally grow The trap of going all in on any one way of eating What changed at 40: harder sleep, a changing midsection, and the same habits giving different results Why two workouts a day and a tiny list of approved foods stopped serving her Clutter and Your Nervous System Why mess that never bothered you at 35 can feel unbearable at 45 Stacey's ADHD story and what she learned cohosting the Mother Plus Podcast The donation bag that sat for three months and the returns riding around in her car Why clearing her space helped more than meditating, journaling, and tapping in the middle of chaos Amy's move from a closet full of polyester to fewer pieces in linen and organic cotton The tip from Dana K. White, author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life: you can't control his mess, so start with yours Feeding a Family Real Food Deciding who your family is so daily choices get easier The giant snack bag that goes everywhere: beef sticks, bone broth bars, apples on an ice pack, grapes, and bananas Treats at birthday parties and friends' houses, real food at home Stealth health muffins made with bone broth protein and super greens How Amy used the same idea with her parents, including cottage cheese ice cream Getting kids into the kitchen early, mess and all Early Puberty and the Three Things Stacey Changed What Stacey has been reading about girls showing signs of puberty as young as 7 or 8 Morning sunlight before screens and real darkness at night Synthetic fragrance in body sprays, candles, toys, and even slime Knowing where your food comes from How she explains the why to her almost 9 year old The Toxic Bucket The 168 chemical ingredients the average woman puts on her body every day Amy's hotel story and the hives that followed How Amy's husband went from skeptic to noticing the difference himself Raising Confident Girls Why confidence is Stacey's number one goal for her daughters The nursery wall of strong women The bedtime question she asks every single night STANDOUT MOMENTS AND QUOTES Stacey on turning 40: "I have found that pushing more, being extreme is actually hurting me." Her new rules are short. Back to basics. Simpler is better. Less is more. Stacey on why healthy choices feel easy in her house: "Once you decide that's just who you are, that's the kind of mom you are and the kind of woman you are, everything else becomes clear." Nobody argues about the drive through, because that's simply something her family doesn't do. She packs the snacks before they leave so hunger never makes the decision. Stacey on perimenopause and her daughters: "A lot of times the fixes that help us, help them." If morning light helps your hormones and your sleep at 45, it's doing the same work for a 9 year old. Amy on resilience: "What happens if we don't make them where they have to be so resilient?" Give kids the tools early, like cooking, real food, sunlight, and screens off at night, and they get to skip some of the lessons you learned the hard way. Amy on the toxic bucket: one cleaner, one lotion, or one meal out is a drop. Years of drops, day after day, fill the bucket. When it overflows, everything seems to go haywire at once. The bedtime question: every night Stacey climbs into her older daughter's bunk bed and asks, "What's on your mind?" Ten to twenty minutes later she's heard about school, friends, and the hard stuff that never comes out at the dinner table. Amy called it gold. And the line the whole conversation lands on. Stacey says the path to feeling great in your 40s and 50s is "much more simple than that, but not easy." Amy tells her clients the same thing: "Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy." STATISTICS AND DATA HIGHLIGHTS 168: the number of chemical ingredients the average woman puts on her body each day through personal care products, based on Environmental Working Group survey data 7 or 8: the age Stacey has read about girls beginning to show signs of puberty 10 to 20 years: how far back Amy says a lot of today's health problems started building 10 to 20 minutes: what the bedtime question adds to the nightly routine 3: the areas Stacey focuses on with her girls, which are light, fragrance, and food FIVE THINGS TO TRY THIS WEEK Step outside for morning light before anyone in the house looks at a screen Clear one surface you see every day, like the kitchen counter or your desk Take the donation bag and the returns out of your car today Add protein to a food your family already loves, like muffins or homemade ice cream Ask someone you love, "What's on your mind?" and then just listen ABOUT STACEY HUTSON Stacey Hutson is the host of The Next Phase podcast, a show for millennial moms entering perimenopause who are ready to stop making life so complicated and get back to basics with their bodies, homes, and ADHD brains. A former advertising copywriter and longtime podcaster, she explores what happens when the self improvement strategies that worked in your 20s and 30s stop working in your 40s. She lives in Golden, Colorado with her husband, two daughters, a dog, and a cat. The Next Phase podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-phase/id1843182891 Stacey on Instagram: @stacehutson YOUR NEXT STEP If you want help turning morning light, protein, and a calmer evening into daily habits, the Living Simpler App keeps it simple, one day at a time. And if you'd like to do it alongside other women in this same season, come join us inside the Living Simpler Collective. The Living Simpler Podcast is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health. 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